I'm rather afraid to ask how you're doing...

Probably for the best. I'd say for the moment everything seems to have settled down a bit, but I suspect that this is just the Universe attempting to lull me into a false sense of security.

Good thing, because I *so* don't want them taken now.

We would have liked pictures in the tub.

YaY for updates. Smooth delivery thoughts are headed your way.

Through the ages, before great advances in science and the medical arts, how did people explain conception and pregnancy?

Late to the discussion, but Classical scientists (see Aristotle’s Generation of Animals and Galen’s On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body) believed that women provide the “matter” or the “material” of the fetus which is menstrual blood. Men, on the other hand, provide the “form” through semen. This form “sets” or shapes the matter in uteri and infuses the fetus with a Soul.

Also, they believed that innate heat (in men) or lack thereof (in women) caused differences in semen and menstrual blood. Aristotle says that both are “a residue from that nourishment which is in the form of blood." The difference between the two is that menstrual blood lacks one component that semen has: “the principle of Soul.” Menstrual blood is semen in an “impure condition.”. Galen believed that women have “imperfect semen” that is “scantier, colder, and wetter” than male semen because it springs from “smaller, less perfect testes.”

Both men believed that while female coldness is a “mutilation” (Galen) or a “deformity” (Aristotle), there is an advantage to that coldness. That coldness aids in the development of the fetus. According to Aristotle, women act as a kind of refrigerator for the fetus. He says that heat quickens the aging process and brings about death sooner. So, the chill of the mother helps the fetus develop at a slower, healthier pace. Galen also thought that the coldness of the woman helped in fetal development. The coldness helped retain the semen of the male and nourish the fetus with it.

To sum up: men=soul; women=matter & refrigerator.

(I actually wrote a short paper on this earlier this semester. Can you tell??)

Hey there, Buffistas!

Long time lurker, first time poster... finally got up the nerve to talk to all you fine, "foamy" people.

So, Sean, come sit here in the sledge, wrap youself in this ermin robe, have a piece of Turkish Delight...

(see Aristotle’s Generation of Animals and Galen’s On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body)

Hottest classical allusion so far today.

Science was fun back in the days before the scientific method, when philosopher guys could just make shit up....

Galen believed that women have “imperfect semen” that is “scantier, colder, and wetter” than male semen because it springs from “smaller, less perfect testes.”

You'd think that at some point, one of their wives would have stepped in and pointed out the major flaw in this theory.

Science was fun back in the days before the scientific method, when philosopher guys could just make shit up....

See also: Psychology, 20th Century.

Galen believed that women have “imperfect semen” that is “scantier, colder, and wetter” than male semen because it springs from “smaller, less perfect testes.”

I'll accept the idea that women have smaller, less perfect testes than men, if I can also accept the idea that men have smaller, less perfect ovaries than women.

I'll at least try for equal opportunity screwy.

Oh, they were completely screwy in their "logic." I'm taking a medieval women's lit class and we started off by reading the Classical and patristic traditions of antifeminist and misogynist writings. Bunch a wackaloons.